This samba paddy season is all set to provide a bumper harvest not only for farmers but also for owners of harvester machines.
Timely availability of water for irrigation resulted in a good season and the crop will be ready for harvest during January-February in about 10 lakh hectares in seven districts in Tamil Nadu, according to official sources.
In addition to crop raised on about 3.50 lakh hectares in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts, paddy has been raised in Ramanathapuram, Sivagangai, Pudukottai, and part of Villupuram districts will also come for harvest during this January-February period when normally the harvesting will be taken up in full swing in delta districts.
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Since a bounteous harvest is expected, despite the Gall Midge pest and other pest attacks in some of the areas in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts, officials feel that the 30-odd harvesting machines owned by the Agriculture Engineering Department (AED) in the three districts will not be sufficient enough to meet the demand from ryots.
Hence, the farmers will be forced to hire machines from private players within the Delta and as well as from the neighbouring districts, they pointed out.
Thus, a meeting was convened by the Thanjavur district administration this week to fix the rental charges to be collected for the harvesting machines. While the AED will be charging ₹850 per hour for harvesting machines with tyres, private players have been allowed to collect ₹1,500 per hour for the machines. For the belt type harvesting machines, the AED will charge ₹1,400 per hour whereas the private players can collect around ₹2,000 per hour.
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In Tiruvarur district, the AED will be lending the tyre type machine for an hourly charge of ₹1,200 and the belt type machine for ₹1,475 per hour.
Private players have been allowed to collect ₹1,500 per hour for tyre type machines and ₹2,000 per hour for the belt type machines, sources said. Meanwhile, enquiry show that it would take around 60 to 90 minutes for a harvesting machine to harvest paddy raised in an acre.
However, the farmers said, despite the fixation of charges by the government, the ryots normally end up by paying more for hiring harvesting machines.
Pointing out that the belt type machines alone can be deployed in the delta region in view of the moisture content in the soil, president of Tamil Nadu Farmers Welfare Association G. Sethuraman says private players always tend to cash in on the demand for belt type machines. If pressurized, the time taken for harvesting will get extended beyond the normal time required for completing the process, he added.
“Instead of issuing mere directions to private players, which on many occasions get overlooked, the government should think of extending subsidy of ₹750 or ₹1,000 per acre to farmers for harvesting,” Mr. Sethuraman said.
Expressing a similar view, secretary of Thanjavur District Cauvery Farmers Protection Association S. Vimalanathan suggested that the government allow farmers to use the harvesting machines of Agriculture Engineering Department free of cost. At the same time, the government should also keep a watch on private harvesting machine owners from harassing other ryots, he added.